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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Upping the ick-factor with Gail Damerow on The Chicken Encyclopedia Blog Tour

While informative and interesting, most of the stops on The Chicken Encyclopedia Blog Tour so far have also been filled with pretty pictures of pretty hens in pretty settings. But as any caretaker knows, when you keep animals you have to deal with the ugly, messy, and sometimes downright "icky" as well.

And that's exactly the subject today's blogger, Terry Golson, broached in his Q & A with author and chicken-keeper Gail Damerow on his blog, The HenCam.

When the folks at Storey Publishing asked me if I’d host a Q & A with Gail on my blog to promote her most recent book, The Chicken Encyclopedia, I jumped at the chance. And what do you think was the one thing I wanted to ask her about? Something pretty, like a fancy chicken breed? Or maybe what she thinks about using broody hens for incubation? No. Of course nothing that charming. I’ve been thinking about gapeworms. These are parasites that live in the chicken’s throat and actually makes the bird gasp for air. It’s an icky, disgusting topic – perfect for the interview!

And Gail doesn't shy away from discussing disgusting topics - when Terry asked her what a chicken with gapeworm looks like, Gail replied, "The chicken makes grunting sounds, stretches its neck and appears to be yawning, shakes its head in trying to dislodge worms from its windpipe, and sometimes coughs up a worm."

Yuck! (But, OK, kind of cool, too, in a fascinating/gross sort of way).

There is, of course, an entry on gapeworm in The Chicken Encyclopedia, but for the real ickiness factor, make sure to click over to Terry's interview with Gail on The HenCam! (And while you're there, enter his contest to win your own copy of the book).

And don't forget to check back tomorrow for the next stop on The Chicken Encyclopedia Blog Tour!